The Canadian city of Ottawa has awarded a C$600,000 contract to Webtech Wireless for it to equip 180 salt spreaders with a remote global positioning system (GPS).

WebTech Wireless will deploy its InterFleet GPS remote vehicle management solution for the city to precisely monitor winter road salting operations.

Supervisors will be able to view each vehicle’s salt use instantaneously so operators can adjust spreader rates on the move.

The deployment of the technology is expected to lead to a 10% annual reduction in salt use, amounting to 13,300t of salt worth C$1m.